1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for controlling the sale of age-controlled merchandise. More particularly, it relates to accessing personalized identification information and encoded age data stored in at least one machine readable medium on an individual's identification document, such as a driver's license or other official document, to determine whether an individual is of legal age.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are various forms of identification that are commonly accepted by businesses and government agencies as proof of age. The most convenient forms of identification are government issued documents such as a driver's license, passport, social security card, voter's registration card, and immigration card. Another example of an identification document is a smart card, which contains a memory provided by an embedded integrated circuit. These documents provide statistical information regarding the authorized bearer of the identification document in at least one machine readable medium such as a barcode or magnetic stripe. Many identifying documents have more than one machine readable medium for storing identifying information. For example, a driver's license typically includes a photograph, printed textual information and visible encoded information, such as a barcode. In some cases a magnetic stripe provides a higher level of security and additional information regarding the bearer. For example, the information stored in the magnetic stripe of a driver's license may include identifying information about the authorized bearer, such as eye color, hair color, height, weight, epidermal topographical patterns, etc. Examples of epidermal topography include digital data of bearer's fingerprint, knuckle print, palm print, etc. The identifying information may include eye patterns indicative of the iris or retina of the identification document bearer. The barcode and magnetic stripe may also include data related to ascertaining the age of the bearer. Alternatively, the above information may be stored in the memory of an embedded integrated circuit on a smart card.
The importance of the driver's license is emphasized by the fact that traffic accidents caused by underaged drivers obtaining alcohol using false driver's licenses is a major contributor to fatalities, injuries and property damage. In addition, there is a need to reduce the number of youths beginning to smoke to reduce health risks. Establishments wishing to avoid the sale of tobacco or alcohol may check the photograph and date of birth printed on driver's licenses. However, many youths have easy access to counterfeit driver's licenses. Accordingly, there is a need to confirm the correct age of a customer wishing to purchase alcohol, tobacco and other age-controlled merchandise by reading encoded data on at least one machine readable medium.
There are a number of methods and apparatuses for verifying data authenticity. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,636,318 discloses a verifiable identification document having a randomized unique pattern of normally invisible but mechanically detectable material (e.g. finely divided ferromagnetic material) in a zone overlapping any visible indicia. A mechanical reader scans the document to verify its authenticity. The identity of the bearer along with the unique pattern is stored in memory. When a document is later read by a mechanical reader, the bearer's name and the pattern are compared with the name and unique associated pattern stored in memory to confirm the document's authenticity.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,702,392 discloses a method and apparatus for verifying the identity of a bearer of an identification document having a plural digit identifying number as an associated security code. The authenticity of the identification document is verified by: 1) accepting a code entered by the bearer, 2) generating the security code associated with certain digits of the identifying number on the identification document, and 3) comparing the security code to the entering code to verify that the codes are the same.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,477 discloses a document having a verifiable composition substance and informational content. The document has a unique-counterfeit characteristic which may be machine sensed. The document is unique by reason of the opacity pattern of the document. The print and photograph alter the opacity or translucency of the document in certain specific areas. In addition, character uniqueness data is encrypted on a magnetic stripe of the identification document in that when the identification document is read, the identification document reader recognizes the document as genuine. Statistical information, such as a birth date which may be used to verify that the document is genuine, is also encrypted on the document. However, this document does not treat the question of whether the person presenting the identification document is the assigned holder.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,284,364 discloses a document security system characterized by a data substrate having a personalized polarization-altering overlay sealed to a base print and encoded with additional information readable under the influence of a polarizing viewer. Tampering with the identification document will create optical errors which become evident when the tampered document is viewed through the polarizing viewer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,361 discloses a document on which encoded information is overlaid on a graphic image. The precise content of the encoded information is not important. The advantage of the coded information overlaying the photograph is that such an arrangement would make it extremely difficult to change the information on the photograph without detection.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,214,699 seeks to provide a fake-proof identification document decoding system for reading data from an EEPROM memory chip, which is located on the identification document. An identification document reader accesses the memory to obtain the unique personal identification information. Although this document suggests the use of such a chip with a driver's license, they typically do not include memory chips due to cost constraints.
Notwithstanding the above prior art efforts, there remains a need for an inexpensive device for quickly and easily ascertaining a customer's age.